Even Ground
by ElfPrincessKitty
Summary: 50 sentences, 50 themes. Chihiro x Haku. Maps the events during and after Chihiro's visit to the Spirit World.


Fandom: _Spirited Away_ (a Studio Ghibli film)  
Pairing: Chihiro x Haku  
Theme Set: Gamma  
Title: Even Ground  
Rating: PG-13  
Warning(s): Suggestive themes in the second half  
Notes: Maps the events during and after Chihiro's visit to the Spirit World.

1. **Ring**

It was an endless cycle of watching people come and go; each new face a fresh wound in his skin.

2. **Hero**

Chihiro went into the bathhouse hoping to be saved, and realized that having a hero wasn't necessary: but one came for her anyway.

3. **Memory**

"If you forget your name again, I promise to help you remember."

4. **Box**

Sometimes, it was hard to like Haku with his constant shifts from "nice guy" to "loyal minion," so Chihiro kept a list of all the good things he did for her in a secret place (for safe-keeping).

5. **Run**

In his dreams, Haku remembers cold water, fast currents, dirty feet, and a little pink shoe spinning within it all.

6. **Hurricane**

How is one supposed to be normal when your parents were temporarily pigs, you served as a slave in a bathhouse for demons and spirits, and fell in love with a dragon?

7. **Wings**

At the age of 10, Chihiro learned that not everything that flew had wings; which made things more comfortable when Haku took her for midnight rides.

8. **Doors**

The bathhouse seems more bearable with Haku in it (even when he's acting like a prude).

9. **Red**

After finding the silver dragon lying broken in Yubaba's office, all she could see was the blood and how it wasn't supposed to be _every where._

10. **Drink**

Haku made a promise he intended to keep when Chihiro gave him his first kiss before running back home.

11. **Midnight**

Every night, a strong wind knocks at their windows and doors, and Chihiro imagines that it's announcing_ his_ arrival while her parents sleep through it all.

12. **Temptation**

"Keep walking and promise me that you won't look back (but if you do, then I'll still be here watching).

13. **View**

The transition from river spirit to lost spirit to found to human was long and tedious, but being able to watch her grow up made it bearable

14. **Music**

Chihiro has an odd tendency to laugh in her sleep, which confuses and amuses Haku to no end.

15. **Silk**

After leaving the Spirit World, Chihiro would sneek into her mother's closet and surround herself in the fine dresses and kimonos, and pretend it's Haku holding her close and assuring her that it will all be ok.

16. **Cover**

She was sixteen, it was 4:00 in the morning, and the fog danced on the grass when Chihiro ran into her front yard to find him standing there: here, alive, real, and warm.

17. **Promise**

It took six years to fulfill his first promise, but the look on her face and the leap that tackled him into the damp grass made it worth while.

18. **Dream**

Chihiro imagined the different faces Haku could have once they reunited, but it didn't prepare her to see such a painfully _familiar_ face that had simply filled into the shape of a teenagers.

19. **Candle**

"Well, I've only been human for about two years, but I've been technically alive for a few hundred."

"How about we just say that you are 16 for the sake of your birthday cake?"

20. **Talent**

Apparently, Haku is a natural surfer.

21. **Silence**

There wasn't a lot to say once they reunited: Haku had always been watching and Chihiro didn't want to know, so they spent the first week wrapped in her blankets and challenging each other to staring contests.

22. **Journey**

As far as Haku was concerned, this was the beginning of his new life.

23.** Fire**

Rumors of a new _male_ student at Chihiro's highschool spread like wild fire: the fact that he didn't bother sparing any attention to anyone _but_ Chihiro spread twice as fast.

24. **Strength**

Being human was a lot harder than he thought.

25. **Mask**

Zaniba had found the guardians posing as Haku's parents; so it wasn't too unusual for him to return home only to find No Face digging for pound cake in his cupboards.

26.** Ice**

Chihiro thought the title "Ice Prince" was cute: Haku was less than amused.

27. **Fall**

As the two of them spent more time riding their bikes to the river nearby, and splashing in the water like non-children, they realized that they were falling in love all over again.

28. **Forgotten**

Haku felt her arms wrap around him, her fae pressed into his back, "This is where your river used to be."

29. **Dance**

Chihiro never knew that skinny-dipping with a former river spirt could be so fun.

30. **Body**

Haku was suddenly reminded that his Chihiro matured not only in mind and spirit . . .

31. **Scared**

At the beginning of their senior year, Haku decided that he wanted to marry her right out of graduation, and promptly ran to Zaniba's for assistance.

32. **Farewells**

Despite leaving the spirit world so long ago, Chihiro still catches glimpses of ghosts and demons out of the corner of her eye.

33. **World**

The world stood still on Halloween night, as Haku fell to one knee (in a ridiculous Frankenstein costume) to propose to a spellbound Chihiro (who lacked any foresight and had decided to be Jason this year).

34. **Formal**

Serving under Yubaba was not nearly as stressful as announcing his intentions to Chihiro's parents.

35. **Fever**

When Haku first caught a seasonal cold, he thought he was going to die: much to Chihiro's amusement, as she prepared him _another_ bowl of tomato soup.

36. **Laugh**

When Lin (who heard it from the other employees, who overheard a rampaging Yubaba, who heard it from an estatic Boh, who heard it from No Face, who heard it from the glowing Zeniba) found out that the mousey human and "stick-up-is-ass" dragon was getting hitched, she couldn't stop laughing at the bizarre-ness of it all.

37. **Lies**

"You really didn't have to punch him to defend my honor."

38. **Forever**

Haku's third lifetime began the moment he slipped the gold ring onto her finger.

39. **Overwhelmed**

Chihiro's side of the church held her parents and a few close friends, while Haku's side held an old woman with a large nose, a six-foot-tall baby, and a wide array of costumed guests: Chihiro's mother vaguely wondered just what kind of family they were joining with.

40. **Whisper**

Their union was held together by shared breaths, timid brushes of skin, and butterfly wings.

41. **Wait**

As he slept beside her, she twirled a lock of his midnight hair around her finger, "I would have waited forever for you."

42. **Talk**

Haku woke up to find his wife chatting it up with No Face in the kitchen of their honeymoon suite, and promptly decided that it was too early to be out of bed to deal with inconsiderate spirits.

43. **Search**

How does one hide from nosy grandmothers?

44. **Hope**

Chihiro knew that it was hard to keep a river spirit turned dragon turned human on the ground, but she didn't expect him to take to flying lessons with such gusto.

45.** Eclipse**

The loss of the Kohaku River no longer shadowed his face.

46. **Gravity**

Haku knew that Chihiro relied on him for a lot of things--love, support, affection, reassurance--but at the end of the day, it's her that he needs to stay grounded above all else.

47. **Highway**

Haku was a great pilot, but a poor driver.

48. **Unknown**

Where does a woman who can talk to ghosts and her ex-dragon call home?

49. **Lock**

Haku caved in and finally begged Zeniba for a spell to keep all non-human visitors out of their home (they _always_ forgot to knock).

50. **Breathe**

"I love you."


End file.
